


if I thought you meant it

by forpeaches (bluecarrot)



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: F/M, Idiots in Love, Love, Marriage Proposal, Romance, slow to the punchline, soft, unromantic gestures
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-13
Updated: 2020-01-13
Packaged: 2021-02-27 12:34:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 471
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22247191
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bluecarrot/pseuds/forpeaches
Summary: “I want you to marry me, you ridiculous girl.”
Relationships: Jaime Lannister/Brienne of Tarth
Comments: 25
Kudos: 223





	if I thought you meant it

**Author's Note:**

> written 13 January 2020.

“Jaime?” and she lets him inside the room. “What are you doing? Why are you here?”

“Because I wanted to see you,” he says: but he’s not looking at her, is he? so how badly could be want it. His eyes are down on the floor. “I wanted to see you, and I thought we should talk awhile.”

“You see me every night,” she says, “and most of the mornings.”

“Well. Yes. About that.” He settles down on the chair. “That’s why I’m here.”

Her heart sinks in her chest — hits bottom — steadies. “We made no promises, Jaime. You’re under no ties to me.”

“—What?”

It’s hard to breathe around the weight of her heart, solid and hard: she tries again. “You don’t need to ... announce it to me, if you’re breaking this off. You can simply—”

“Break it off,” says Jaime. He’s staring at her now. “Is that what you think I want?”

No. Yes. “Of course,” she manages. “I understand that I am not — that we are not — that this can’t be —”

“I want to marry you.”

 _No_. She sits down on the bed. “That isn’t what you want.”

“I want to marry you,” he says again, and rubs his hand through his hair as he does when he is unable to make himself understood. “I want you to be my wife — here or in Kings Landing or on Tarth, if you’d prefer. I want to sleep beside you every night of my life and wake with you every morning, and I have no intentions of slowing down our midnight pursuits, either —”

“ _Jaime_.” She is hot, her face feels hot. How can he speak of these things? 

“The maiden finds her voice at last.” 

“I’m no maiden.”

“I’m well aware of that,” says Jaime, impatient. “Brienne, answer what I asked.”

“How can I give you an answer when you don’t intend the question? You’re never serious. You don’t take things in earnest. If I thought you meant it—“ She stops.

“Yes?” says Jaime, tense. “What then?”

She’s looking at him now, because he’s looking at her now. His face is flushed and his eyes are clear and his mouth is tight, and if she didn’t know better ...

“If I thought you meant it,” she says, “I’d accept.”

Jaime nods, and she thinks he will move towards her, he will kiss her.

He doesn’t. “And if I don’t mean it? If I am mocking you, Brienne?”

“If you’re mocking me, I’ll take you to the field and spar, til you’re black and blue and can’t raise an arm,” she says. Her voice is trembling.

“You would do that anyway,” says Jaime: and she lets him kiss her then — partly because she wants him to do it so very much — and partly because it’s true, it’s real, in every single word.

**Author's Note:**

> this is my 100th fic on ao3! i deserve something nice. like a new sweater, maybe. or a fresh snowfall.


End file.
